Man on a mission in Clifton, NJ (Story from NJ.com)

Clifton man on a mission FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2013 BY TERENCE MCGINLEY STAFF WRITER CLIFTON JOURNAL PRINT | E-MAIL CLIFTON — 'Fail forwards, not backwards'... 'The only bad grade is an incomplete.' Drew Horn pictured with a volunteer from Montclair State University's 'Smile Station' celebrating with a resident of an area nursing home. Horn will receive a peer leadership award for his work next month in Hollywood. COURTESY PHOTOS Drew Horn pictured with a volunteer from Montclair State University's 'Smile Station' celebrating with a resident of an area nursing home. Horn will receive a peer leadership award for his work next month in Hollywood. These are just a few of the many mottos used by Drew Horn, the founder of the Turn a Frown Around Foundation and longtime advocate for mental health. To Horn and his colleagues, loneliness is not a simple emotion. It is a condition, an epidemic — an epidemic that can easily be cured. Next month Horn is being honored with a peer leadership award at the SAMHSA Voice awards in Hollywood for his "tireless pursuit to help other individuals address their own mental health issues," according to a press release by SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). Horn founded Turn a Frown Around (TAFA) in 2001 while working as a stand up comedian. He describes it as a "benevolent match.com" on a constant mission to seek out and befriend the people who fall through the cracks of society. He is constantly on the road performing at prisons, psychiatric wards, orphanages and nursing homes, places TAFA calls institutions of loneliness. He does not finish a show without giving everybody a hug. "I hear the heartbeat of the lonely every day," he said. "I don't know why I do. I just do." Horn grew up in the Montclair Heights neighborhood of Clifton. His formative years were difficult, he said. His father died when he was 12 and his mother was frequently ill. He never finished ninth grade. Three business ventures failed and he could never hold a job. "I would get hired level-headed then quit when I became manic," he said. At that point Horn was alternating between psychiatric wards and homeless shelters. He even recalls a period of time living in the forest of Mills Reservation. He said he was suicidal and it seemed he had become one of the lonely and forgotten. But his daughter never gave up on him. "She told me I was being selfish. After I made a deal with her that suicide was off the table, after I truly believed that, then I began to take myself seriously," he said. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 42, another step which he said was beneficial. "It helped me label the problem," he said. "I could say to myself 'I'm not bipolar, I have bipolar.'" He was back on his feet performing at comedy clubs and open mic nights. Onstage one night in Montclair something became clear to him. "I realized that the guy in the audience on his third martini doesn't need laughter," he said. Turn a Frown Around was born. He decided to perform strictly for the nursing homes, orphanages and psych wards, giving laughter to the lonely. Drew Horn has not checked into a psychiatric ward in 15 years. Congress established SAMHSA in 1992 as a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services. According to the administration's website, last year 10.6 million Americans reported they did not receive the mental health care they need. SAMHSA started the Voice awards seven years ago. The mission is to recognize television, film and individuals who address mental health respectfully and accurately. Television shows "Monk" and "Law and Order: SVU," are among previous honorees. The Voice awards was first introduced to Horn in "Crazy Enough to Care," a documentary that tells his story, which received an honorable mention at the 2009 ceremony. Director Sheryl Franko made the documentary because "there is no ulterior motive for Drew," she said, adding "he has the deepest form of human compassion." After the success of "Crazy Enough to Care" Horn and Franko travelled to the Netherlands on a tour of nursing homes to prove that a hug is the same in every language. "Connectivity is vital to mental health," Franko said. "What Drew brings is universal." A few years ago SAMHSA established the peer leadership award Horn is receiving in September. NFL Wide Receiver Brandon Marshall is among past winners. "We decided to recognize certain individuals that have made significant improvements in not only their own lives but the lives of others as well," said Carleton Spaeth, project manager of the Voice awards. "Drew is one of those people." Horn is far from fulfilled, however. Recently he has been working on establishing smile stations, hubs of connectivity where the lonely can find forever friends. In addition to being a 24-hour support group, every smile station sponsors an institution of loneliness. Montclair State University was the first college campus to establish a smile station. There are 40 volunteers who visit the Gates Manner nursing home in Montclair once a week. Each volunteer befriends a resident for 20 minutes, but they "always stay longer than that," said junior Chelsea Durocher, president of the MSU smile station. Durocher is starting Compassion Coffee House, a series of weekly events at campus hot spots sponsored by the smile station. Her goal is to "gather young thinkers to think compassionately," she said. She said she's hoping to get to 250 members by the end of the year. There are smile stations at Delaware Valley College and the Seymour Town Library in Seymour, Connecticut. Ten nursing homes scattered throughout the metropolitan area have established stations as well. More are in the works in New Jersey and Georgia. TAFA has more than 100 registered forever friend volunteers. The scope is widening, the message spreading. These are the seedlings of Horn's broad vision. They are footprints, he said, from his never-ending journey to show every lonely and mentally ill person that there is somebody out there who cares. "It took me a long time to figure out that I can offer something in this world," he said. "Now I know I can help people find who they are so they can accept themselves." Getting honored at a Hollywood awards ceremony might be a culminating moment for some, but not Horn. "Don't tell me I have done a good job," he said. "I have only done a good job when there is a smile station in every city in the country." He plans to approach the Voice awards as a platform to launch from and a place to network with influential people. "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care," Horn said. On Sept. 25 at Paramount Studios in Hollywood he will be limited to just a two minute speech. Chances are he will find a way to fit plenty of those adages in there. Email: mcginley@northjersey.com - See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/222626601_Clifton_man_on_a_mission.html?page=all#sthash.bJO9j95z.dpuf

Blog for the removal of certain medications (NAMI.org repost)

Long-term Recovery: More Options, Better Treatment Needed by Kathleen Vogtle, NAMI Communications Coordinator Dr. Thomas Insel, NIMH Director weighs in on study results that, for some, may turn age-old thinking in the mental health field on its head: long-term recovery in schizophrenia may not necessarily include taking antipsychotic mediations. Insel is very clear that he is not negating the benefits of popular and even “atypical” antipsychotics. However, he states that while these medications are largely helpful for those experiencing their first psychotic episodes, their reliability decreases over time. Insel illustrates his claim based on a recently published finding by L. Wunderink in JAMA-Psychiatry. The study followed 103 people with schizophrenia over a seven-year period. After six months of remission, the participants were randomly selected to either wean off the medication, or to continue with maintenance treatment. The results were, at first, predictable. Those who were taken off the medications “experienced twice the relapse rates in the early phase of the follow-up.” Within a few years, these rates evened out, and by the conclusion of the study, a remarkable trend was revealed. Among the 103 participants, the group who had discontinued the medications had achieved a 40.4 percent “functional recovery rate,” as opposed to the 17.6 percent who had continued to use the antipsychotic. The results of the study, though, should not call into question all preconceived notions of how to treat schizophrenia. Instead, Insel believes this is an opportunity to reframe and expand upon this knowledge. He urges a more comprehensive approach: for some, antipsychotic treatment is a necessity; for others, a combination of medication and psychosocial treatment, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) might prove most effective. Still others may be most productive with no medication at all. However, it is important to assess the potential risks involved in changing any treatment or medication regimen. It is up to the individual and his/her health care provider to decide on the best course of treatment. Above all, Insel states, the term “schizophrenia” was defined a mere 100 years ago, and first generation medications developed only 50 years afterwards. This research, then, is a reminder of how much is still to be learned about this mental illness.